I'm a newly retired librarian attempting to fill the void left by having no library or classroom. I plan to do so by reading and sharing my journey with you. I live in New Orleans with my husband, three kids, four cats, and Boston Terrier. Come along on this adventure with me… <3 NOLADawn (Header photos are by my college freshman IG: @alexandra_nola)

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The companion to Raina Telgemeier’s #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling and Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir, SMILE.

Raina can’t wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn’t improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn’t seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along. They are sisters, after all.

Raina uses her signature humor and charm in both present-day narrative and perfectly placed flashbacks to tell the story of her relationship with her sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.

Sisters by Raina TelgemeierRaina has another wonderful tale from her childhood, this time about her sister, Amara. Told with the humor and adventures we look forward to from Raina, this graphic novel does not disappoint. Flashing back and forth between when the sisters were little and the time period in the story (ages 14 & 9) is a great mirror to the current scene.

It’s Feline Friday!! My dear friend Sandee over at Comedy Plus let me know about it!! (I don’t know if Sandee has put 3 and 3 together yet to realize that I’m the same NOLADawn that was good blogging buddies with her before I gave up my blog 7 yrs ago…. Oh, Sandee!!) 🙂

This is our third oldest rescue cat, Mouse. He is all white with blue eyes and carries the deaf gene. He was found in an attic and we fell in love with his tiny little white body and huge pink ears immediately, hence the name Mouse. He is certainly NOT quiet as a mouse, as he cannot hear the pots, pans, books, and other loud, annoying things he knocks over and “plays with” at 3am. Mouse will celebrate his 7th Gotcha Day this October.

August 19:10 books people around keep telling me I should read either because I’ll enjoy it because, ooh, it’s your kinda thing… or you need to give this a try, I bet you’ll like it if you try it (like my PawPaw said about peas…psst he was wrong).

1. Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys; I purchased it at my school book fair, but just can’t seem to get past the name. Such an unfortunate timing.

2. Harry Potter by JK Rowling. Whip me, punish me, do what you will. I’m a bad teacher, librarian & mother. I’ve not read any of the series. AND I started teaching when book 1 began as I was teaching 3rd graders. For shame.

3. Whilst my head hangeth in shame…. I’m pestered away about Lord of the Rings by Tolkien as well.

4. My last shame post because, dagnabit, I don’t read fantasy, but I get a ton of “BUT if you tried it you’d love it, and then you could watch the show and love it too!!” <said in the most sing-song whiny voice you can imagine> Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

6. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs; my daughter read it about three years ago and has been giving me little snide remarks since then. Well, now that the sequel is out I won’t ever hear the end of it until I read it AND THE SEQUEL, SO….

8. Several friends over the years have told me to read this and I wouldn’t feel the same afterwards. I’ve still never had the chance. Maybe now is the time! One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

9. Especially being from NOLA and South LA, the home of Sookie, I get tons of people telling me I should read the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. Maybe once the series ends, I’ll give them a try.

10, Finally, when Khaled Hosseni‘s two most popular books, Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, came out I was in the busiest time in my teaching career and was reading middle grade, YA, and nonfiction books. These two were all anyone was talking about and still today they remain at the top of lists of books you should read. I will move these to the top of my TBR stack for a Throwback session coming soon.

Last December I asked a set of seven questions to the WordPress community and invited anyone and everyone to participate. The response that I received was incredible, and the resulting answers gave me a small insight into the blogging world and it’s members.

Since then, my following has tripled, I have received nearly A QUARTER OF A MILLION views (I still can’t believe that) and over the last eight months I have ‘met’ and formed small relationships with lots of wonderful people, so I thought it would be a nice idea to do this experiment again. It isn’t a blog party, so please don’t leave links to your general posts, but it (if enough people participate) will provide a great opportunity for bloggers to meet new people who share similar interests. You don’t have to follow this blog, or have a lot of blogging experience to participate.